Every Friday my syndicated column appears in a bunch of newspapers in southeastern Ontario and Saskatchewan. And–gasp!–sometimes I actually write about stuff other than sex. I know lately I’ve been preoccupied with The Good Girl’s Guide to Great Sex, but here’s this week’s column for something different:
I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon last weekend watching YouTube videos.
Big mistake. I have now lost almost all faith in humanity.
It started when my daughters told me to watch “Honey Boo Boo Child”, a clip from the Toddlers and Tiaras show (which, to this point in my life, I have successfully avoided). Now Honey Boo Boo Child is a 6-year-old girl made up to look like a tramp. And that’s a polite word for it. Watching the clip felt like watching a train wreck. It’s so horrible you want to turn away, but you just can’t. And now I can’t get those creepy Jonbenet Ramsay pictures out of my head. I thought I had finally banished them.
From there I followed a link to a Judge Judy video, another show I have, until this point in my life, managed to avoid. On this particular episode, a 21-year-old male was being sued by his 30-year-old ex-girlfriend for rent money. It turns out they had lived together, but they had a prior agreement that he could get out of paying rent because his presence provided benefit enough. At some point she obviously changed her mind.
In the course of Judge Judy’s questioning it came out that this man had been paid $70,000 by the government to pursue a music degree, and given a stipend of $450 a month for rent. Judge Judy wanted to know why he hadn’t spend that $450 on rent. He replied that the government “was just paying me for being me!”
Judge Judy then declared, “I’m sending this tape to Congress.” Maybe she should just run for Congress and stop the insanity.
Insanity is all I see in the news right now. Iran is about to develop a nuclear weapon. Gas prices are about to go through the roof. Twenty percent of Americans are either unemployed or underemployed. And what do politicians want to talk about? Birth control. Democrats claim that Republicans want to outlaw birth control simply because they don’t want to force Catholic and other faith-based entities to pay for it. With Obama losing traction in his re-election campaign, they thought creating an issue to win women’s votes was a necessity. Because we all know women care way more about contraception than unemployment, right? Sheesh.
When I used to take my children to the portrait studio to get that family photo taken, the kids would be miserable. They didn’t like sitting still. So the photographer would wave this teddy bear in the air, trying to distract them from their misery and coerce a smile.
Maybe that’s what happening on a larger scale. We’re trying to ignore the real problems that are facing our world. We watch utterly bizarre shows on television because it distracts us from reality. We feel entitled to free money and free IUDs and free rent and free anything because it’s other people paying, and we want the free ride as long as we can get it.
And we let politicians on both sides of our border wave some stupid issue and demonize the other side, thinking it will win votes, instead of talking about the things that actually affect us, like the economy, or gas prices, or public safety.
This world is falling apart, and too many people don’t care. And that’s depressing to think about. So next time my kids tell me to watch some YouTube video, I’m going to stick to giggling babies. At least they have the capacity to restore my faith in the future.
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Sheila Wray Gregoire has been married for 29 years and happily married for 24! She loves traveling around North America with her hubby in their RV, giving her signature "Girl Talk" about sex and marriage. And she's written 7 books. About sex and marriage. See a theme here? Plus she knits. Even in line at the grocery store.
Thanks for the humorous post about the state of the world — I agree that it can be discouraging sometimes. I appreciate your insight and willingness to say what many of us feel: stop pretending the big issues don’t exist.
Wow, that “Toddlers & Tiaras” video is utterly depressing. I felt so sad for that little girl.
That’s why I don’t watch tv!!! And why I stick to the youtube videos about cute animals. 🙂 I did read an article about those little girls made to look like women. Gross. Anyway, politicians and political commentators here in the U.S. are like that too – such as recently the big fiasco involving birth control. So they’re having conferences on whether or not women should be allowed to have birth control, while our entire economy is falling apart, innumerable people are out of work and consistently being laid off, people are experiencing extreme financial hardship even to the point of losing their homes and becoming homeless. When are they going to address that?
About the “free stuff,” I will say this – it appears, in my experience, that the people who are so against any government help have never been put in the position where that was the only help available to them. All the stories about lazy people who just want to bum money, who have a sense of entitlement – I’m sure there are some people like that, but again in my experience the majority of people who need help are extremely hard workers put in hopeless situations that are not their fault, and people and churches are either unwilling or unable to help. I think most of those stories are just political propaganda. As I mentioned earlier, the economy is killing people right now. Anyway, I feel it’s much better to walk in someone’s shoes before I judge them for things that I don’t understand or have never experienced.
Just food for thought.
I posted a portion of today’s blog to my facebook status along with a link back to here. Your thoughts totally resemble my own.
Just…. wow. I had to stop watching the clip because my kids came up behind me to watch. I was glad for the reason to turn it off. I completely agree with you on every single point.
You have such a great perspective on life!
The world has always been falling apart. I mean, like, literally from the very first.
That’s true! People always talk about how things are so bad now, worse than they ever used to be, but culture, government, politics, societal values, etc etc – those things have always been terrible. People have always been corrupt. Politicians have always been power-hungry, and as for values – they were having orgies in ancient Greece and Rome, ridiculous numbers of people were dying of STDs in France well before anyone knew what an STD was. The first porn ever discovered was found in the ruins of Pompeii. People haven’t changed much over time. I suppose you can always say that at least today we don’t watch people get torn apart by lions for entertainment, like they used to in ancient Rome.
So, true, Jen! And I was thinking I should also add–the world has always been rebuilding, too. Or being rebuilt, by the grace of God. That’s the tension of life!
Yes, I think that’s the lovely thing. God redeems us from the corruption of the world, so that we can live a pure and holy life even in the middle of all the chaos. All of the corruption came about with the fall of man, and it’s not going away anytime soon, but we as God’s children are not held captive by it anymore. We can only hope to help change the lives of people by the example we set of God’s love, mercy, and grace.
Very true!
…but aren’t we blessed to know that God is STILL on the throne and STILL in control — even though we see things as a mess. Not only that, but He can be our Savior and we can have a personal relationship with He who controls ALL. Comforting…
Amen!
JUDGE JUDY FOR CONGRESS!!! 😀
I hear ya on the campaign issue thing, though. It drives me nuts how politicians and the media latch onto one little thing and make it this huge “can I vote for this person or not???” issue when whether or not a candidate is qualified to be our president is so much bigger than that.
It’s funny (sort-of) that the very people who have the wisdom to potentially be effective in public office, also seem to have enough wisdom to completely steer clear of it. Political power seems to have this way of either detroying your credibility, your character, or a combination of the two.
As for the garbage that’s on TV – shortly after the conference where my wife and I first met Sheila, we implemented ‘TV-free Sundays.’ We’re fortunate to have a Christian radio station in the city we live in, and Sundays are all praise and worship music, commercial free. That’s the sound you’ll hear in our house. We’re also giving serious consideration to cancelling our cable subscription – at least, once the hockey season is over 😉
I’ll definitely agree that shows such as ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ give me the absolute creeps. Honestly, I’m astounded that this stuff makes it to air in the first place. There’s something seriously wrong with that entire mindset.
I’ve thought that for a long time, too–that those who would do best in politics would never run because it would wear them down. It’s sad the situation we’ve created, but perhaps it’s just a reminder that a perfect government is an impossibility without God.
I do not watch much TV at all just for that reason. T & T is not a show that is allowed in our house as it has such skewed values and does so much damage to those little girls when they are so influenced it isn’t funny. The all about me society is reaping its consequences and has most likely not hit rock bottom yet because there are still those who care about things and want to do the right thing. Such a testament to what happens when society tries to squeeze God out. People do not want to look at reality and the longer they don’t the harder they will be hit by it when they can no longer run from it. People get upset by immigrants being successful, but they are ones who will take the low paying jobs, make huge sacrifices for their families and quite often come out ahead of those who just say “gimme gimme” as working for something below X dollars is beneath them….as Chuck Swindoll said “everyone needs to learn and live the word denial as it is good for you and reaps great rewards”.
I agree to a certain extent about being willing to work for low wages, but at the same time from experience I know that minimum wage, even with lots of overtime, cannot pay the bills. Depending on where the job is, sometimes you pay almost as much to commute to and from work as you’re making in paychecks. Again, this is from personal experience, with a husband who works extremely hard labor jobs, not someone who insists on a cushy desk job. As for immigrants, however, more power to them – we are the melting pot. 🙂 Or we’re supposed to be, anyway.
Well, the majority of humanity has turned away from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The world wants to do everything on it’s own- they don’t need God! So now, our world is getting worse and worse and I don’t expect it to get better. We just need to stay strong, be a good witness for the Lord, loves others, and pray for His quick return to restore things to Himself.
So true, Nicole. I often tell my kids, when they’re dismayed by what friends or relatives are doing, “how can you expect people to act in a godly way if they don’t have God?”
I look in the world with a slightly different perspective these days. As a teen and a young parent I would live in despair at how the world was turning out. Now an an older parent I remember my high school history lessons and think about how people survived during each of the “down” cycles in history.
As a homeschooling mum I realise I have a unique opportunity to teach my children the necessities of life that I would also want them to pass on to their children. They will need a faith that God knows what is happening and will always be there for them most importantly.
Then there are many physical, emotional and mental skills they will also need to consider as important too if they and their families are to pull through any potential future “down” times. I don’t want to get all apocalyptic here but I don’t think we should rely on the future world requiring the same skills as our current world.
We need to encourage thinking, problem solving, good communication, compassion, a willingness to work hard both physically and mentally, and an independence from the world if necessary, skills that will help them at any time in any circumstances.
It is not all doom and gloom, pretty horrible I must admit, but God has only “cleaned” the world once, in Noah’s time. He promised not to do it again. I have faith in that.
I will do what I can to protect my young children from the rubbish of the world and teach them to see the beauty that God has created. It all depends on our perspective as to how we cope with what is happening out there.
I choose the best.
Best wishes
Jen in Oz
Great perspective, Jen! And perhaps one reason I was so stunned at the videos is that it doesn’t seem to line up with my own experience. I have great kids. My kids have great friends. We live in a lovely community. But perhaps that’s because so many of us still know God. Without God, there really can’t be any light, and we should stop expecting it!
I also don’t watch a lot of tv, with the exception of Dancing with the Stars 🙂 That T&T clip saddened me because Honey Boo Boo child is a very overweight 6yr old. Looks like her mother,who is also overweight herself, is feeding her Mountain Dew. EEK!! And what’s up with hoarding rolls and rolls of toilet paper, dishwashing detergent, laundry soap, paper towels?
Humanity saddens me too. I see such abuse of the system daily in my job as an RN…sad, very sad.
Great insights and I am totally agree with this. It is truly sad to know that too many people who actually don’t care. Sometimes, I feel losing of faith in humanity. 🙁
Sheila looks like you were hanging out in the wrong parts of youtube.
Try the booktuber community/ education channels/ nerdfighteria. There are a lot of secular young
people who really believe in hard work and trying to make the world better. Are they humanist and liberal? yes. But they are concerned about the state of the world and just as frustrated as you about the state of mainstream media and the government.
I’ve realized all these things about the world when I was a very young girl. It nearly made me give up on living at one
point when I was a teenager. But, life isn’t supposed to be perfect. We are exiles in hostile territory. God is in control and
we are going home. The evil one is powerful, but he has been overcome. Just keep running the good race.
Thank you for your lovely blog.
I probably spend way too much time on here 🙂